Casing for ventilated cushions



July 21, 1959 s. P. CRANE ET AL 2,895,543

- CASING FOR VENTILATED CUSHIONS Filed Dec. 5, 1956 FRICTON COATING 1 VENTOR. Samuel .g me By Stephen eni- A TTORNE Y United States Patent O CASING FOR VENTILATED CUSHIONS Samuel P. Crane, Great Neck, and Stephen D. Kent, Newburgh, NY.

This invention relates to ventilating cushions and particularly to the structure of the casing or coveringthereof.

Ventilating cushions used for example on automobile seats to space the body of the occupant from the seat and back are usually loose and unsecured, and frequently slide off the seat and are lost when the occupant slides off the seat and out of the car. The cushion also moves uncontrolledly about when the occupant enters thecar, requiring the occupant to hold the cushion as he enters in order to prevent displacement of the cushion. The cushion also becomes displaced when the occupant moves about. When a double cushion is used, it is less likely to slide out of the car, the two cushions being separably fastened together, as by snap fasteners, at the adjacent side edges thereof to cover the entire seat. However, stresses on the cushions tending to move them about and apart vertically and horizontally when the occupants move around or are jounced about, put a severe strain or pull on that part of the cushion casing adjacent the fasteners and also sharply creases the strands, threads or other material of the casing back and forth at the fasteners. Said threads or material is frequently pulled out of the stitches at the fasteners, or else it breaks under the repeated sharp flexing thereof to expose the inner metallic coiled unit of the cushion.

The invention contemplates the provision of simple and inexpensive means for holding together and reinforcing the casing threads at the fasteners so that stresses exerted on the warp threads adjacent the fasteners are distributed to a number of such threads beyond the fasteners, and pulling of the threads out of the binding or stitching at or adjacent to the fasteners as well as excessive flexing or sharp creasing of the threads is adequately prevented.

The various objects of the invention will be clear from the description which follows, and from the drawings, in which Fig. 1 is an elevational view of a pair of ventilating cushions fastened by snap fasteners edge to edge.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary elevational View on an enlarged scale of the pair of cushions.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view thereof taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a similar view taken on the line 44 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view of the rear sheet of the casing showing the friction coating.

In the embodiment of the invention shown by way of example, each of the inner units of the cushion is shown as comprising Wire coils as and a border frame 11, the coils and frame being assembled in any suitable manner, as for example, is disclosed in the pending ap plication of Samuel P. Crane, Serial No. 549,414, filed Nov. 28, 1955, now Patent No. 2,801,681, issued Aug. 6, 1957. Each cushion usually contains two units, one unit as 12 intended to rest against the back of the seat structure and the other as 13 to rest against the seat bottom.

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The units are hinged together in any suitable manner, as by means of the casing, and are covered by and enclosed within the casing, which is of the type permitting free circulation of air therethrough for ventilating purposes. Said casing may be of any suitable type having a great number of closely spaced perforations or spaces therein, but as illustrated, the casing comprises a front sheet 15 of considerably separated threads16 which will be termed warp threads, and similarly separated filler or weft threads 17, and a back sheet 18 preferably but not necessarily similar to the front sheet and having similarly separated warp and weft threads. As has been indicated, such warp threads may fail or break under repeated or concentrated sharp bending or shearing stresses, or repeated creasing such as occurs under the conditions hereinbefore pointed out. The sheets are suitably secured together at the side and end edges thereof to form an envelope or casing for the units 12 and 13 holding them in their proper relative positions.

Between the sheets 15 and 18 at the peripheral side edge portions thereof, is arranged and secured a strip of suitable high strength material of fiber, plastic or the like, the strip as 20 being preferably covered on the rear face thereof with a layer of any suitable adhesive 21. Obviously, the adhesive may be optionally applied to. said face. just prior to the fastening of the strip in place. Lines of stitching 22, 23 around the warp threads and passing through the strip 20 secure the sheets 15 and 18 together with the reinforcing strip therebetween and with the ends of the warp threads and the marginal weft threads adhesively secured to the. strip 20. Said strip, while flexible to some extent, serves to stiffen and strengthen the side edge portions of the cushion; to transmit excessive stresses on the warp threads over a considerable area to other warp threads; to resist sharp creasing of the warp threads and thereby to diminish breakage of said threads, and also to resist curling of the edge portions of the casing. The adhesive layer 21 also serves to resist slipping of the ends of the warp threads out of the stitching and away from the reinforcing strip and to transfer stresses on said threads to said strip and thence to distribute the stresses to other threads.

The edge portions of the casing are finished and protected by the binding 24 folded as at 25 about the edges and secured by stitching 26 passing through the casing as best seen in Figs. 3 and 4. The reinforcing strip 20 is most advantageously employed where the cushions are separably secured together at adjacent side edges thereof as by means of spaced stud snap fastener elements 29 projecting from the rear face of one cushion and similarly spaced socket snap fastener elements 30 projecting from the front face of the other cushion. As shown in Fig. 4 each of said fastener elements includes a hollow eyelet portion which severs part of and pierces the binding 24- and the strip 20 and frequently cuts off the end of one or more of the warp threads, thereby weakening the sheets at the fasteners and concentrating greater stress on the remaining adjacent Warp threads when the occupants of the seat move apart or are jounced about by the movement of the vehicle. However, the reinforcing strip more than compensates for the mutilation, if any, of the warp threads by the fasener elements, as has been above explained.

To resist slippage of the cushion on and relatively to the seat and thereby not only to diminish the occurrence of excessive stresses on or flexing of the warp threads at the fasteners, but also to resist displacement and loss of the cushion, the rear surface of the back sheet 18 is coated with a suitable friction coating 31 of rubber latex or suitable plastic, preferably rolled on to the rear areas of the threads. The coating, especially when the cushion is under pressure, tends to stick to the 3 seat surface by friction. By so resisting movement of the cushion, the durability of the threads otherwise subjected to the greatest stresses and fiexure, is enhanced.

It will now be seen that by reason of the reinforcing strips at the casing edges, the deleterious effects of the edge snap fasteners are largely counteracted, that the rear friction coating on the cushion also aids in diminishing such effects by resisting movement of the cushion as well as resisting loss of the cushion due to such movement and consequent displacement, and that the intended objects of the invention have been attained.

While certain specific forms of the invention have herein been shown and described, various obvious changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention defined by the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a ventilating cushion, an inner coiled Wire unit and a casing for the unit comprising a front foraminous sheet having warp threads and weft threads crossing the warp threads, a forarninous rear sheet similar to the front sheet, a flexible non-metallic reinforcing strip between the sheets at each side portion of the casing, stitching securing the strip and sheets together, an edge binding around the marginal portions of the sheets, the strip extending inwardly past the binding, a rearwardly directed snap fastener element at one side edge of the easing passing through the binding, the strip and the sheets, a forwardly directed cooperating snap fastener element at the opposite side edge of the casing passing through the binding, the sheets and the strip, and adhesive securing the strip and the marginal portions of the Warp threads together and maintaining said portions in secured contact with the strip and within the binding under such abnormal tension on said portions as would pull said portions out of the binding in the absence of said strip, the strip resisting creasing of said portions at the edge of the binding.

2. In a ventilating cushion having an inner coiled wire unit and a ventilating foraminous casing including edge binding enclosing the unit, a flexible non-resilient fiber reinforcing strip within the peripheral side edge portions of the casing and the binding and extending inwardly therepast spaced apart snap fastener elements at said portions and passing through the binding, the strip and the casing, stitching passing through the binding, strip and casing and holding the casing to the strip and the binding, and adhesive additionally holding a marginal portion of the casing to the strip and serving to transfer to the strip and the adjacent parts of the casing stresses concentrated upon a limited area of the side edge portion of the casing.

3. In a ventilating cushion, an inner coiled wire unit and a ventilating casing for the unit comprising a front sheet and a rear sheet, at least one of said sheets being foraminous, a flexible reinforcing strip of non-rnetallic material between the sheets at each side portion of the casing, an edge binding around the marginal portions of the sheets, a row of stitching parallel to the edge of the binding and passing through the strip and the sheets, the strip extending inwardly past the stitching, and a fastener element including an eyelet portion passing through and severing parts of the binding and the strip and securing the strip and marginal portions of the sheets adjacent the eyelet portion together, the eyelet portion being headed on to the respective sheets at opposite ends of said portion.

4. In a ventilating cushion having an inner coiled wire unit and a ventilating casing including edge binding enclosing the unit, a flexible non-resilient non-metallic reinforcing strip Within the peripheral side edge portions of the casing and the binding, spaced apart fastener elements at said portions, each having an eyelet portion passing through and severing parts of the binding and the strip and headed at opposite ends thereof on to opposite faces of the casing, and stitching passing completely through the casing and the strip and holding the casing to the strip, the width of the strip being greater than the diameter of the fastener elements, and the strip extending inwardly past the stitching.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,007,075 Clements July 2, 1935 2,051,494 Mitchell et al. Aug. 18, 1936 2,129,353 Harley Sept. 6, 1938 2,791,268 Mendelsohn May 7, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 11,624 Great Britain May 19, 1913 

